Poetry Puzzle
Try to avoid the wrong word.
[[Start]]
Emily Dickinson (1830–86). 1924.
Part One: Life
I
SUCCESS is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er [[proceed]].
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple host 5
Who took the flag to-day
Can [[tell]] the definition,
So clear, of victory,
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear 10
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and [[clear]].Game over !
The Correct word is "succeed"OUR share of night to bear,
Our share of morning,
Our [[blank]] in bliss to fill,
Our blank in scorning.
Here a star, and there a star, 5
Some [[win]] their way.
Here a mist, [[and]] there a mist,
Afterwards—day!SOUL, wilt thou toss again?
By just such a [[hazard]]
Hundreds have lost, indeed,
[[So]] tens have won an all.
Angels’ breathless ballot 5
Lingers to record thee;
Imps in eager caucus
Raffle for my [[soul]].WITHIN my reach!
I could have touched!
I might have chanced that way!
Soft sauntered through the village,
[[Sauntered]] as soft away!
So unsuspected violets
[[With]] the fields lie low,
Too late for striving fingers
That passed, an hour [[ago]].Game Over !
The Correct word is "lose"
IF I can [[stop]] one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can [[ease]] one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or [[force]] one fainting robin 5
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.GLEE! the great storm is over!
Four have recovered the land;
Forty gone down together
Into the [[boiling]] sand.
Ring, for the scant salvation!
Toll, for the bonnie souls,—
Neighbor and friend and bridegroom,
Spinning upon the shoals!
How they will tell the shipwreck
When winter [[says]] the door,
Till the children ask, “But the forty?
Did they come back no more?”
Then a silence suffuses the story,
And a [[softness]] the teller’s eye;
And the children no further question,
And only the waves reply.
IV
’T IS so much joy! ’T is so much joy!
If I should fail, what poverty!
And yet, as poor as I
Have ventured all upon a throw;
Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so
This side the victory!
[[Life]] is but life, and death but death!
Bliss is but bliss, and [[breath]] but breath!
And if, indeed, I fail,
At least to know the worst is sweet.
Defeat means nothing but defeat,
No drearier [[had]] prevail!
And if I gain,—oh, gun at sea,
Oh, bells that in the steeples be,
At first repeat it slow!
For heaven is a different thing
Conjectured, and waked sudden in,
And might o’erwhelm me so!Game Over !
The Correct word is "But"Good Job.
Next Level.Good Job.
Next Level.Game Over !
The Correct word is "Can"Good Job.
Next Level.Game Over !
The Correct word is "shakes"Good Job.
Next Level.Good Job.
Next Level.Good Job.
Next Level.Game Over !
The Correct word is "help"Good Job.
Next Level.Game Over !
The Correct word is "Within "Good Job.
Next Level.